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Academic Skills

In the first two years of my high school, I demonstrated several ATL skills such as organization, collaboration and transfer skills in most of my classes and in the projects outside of the classes.

I think that the organization skill is one of the most important skills that we need in order to improve the studying as it relates to planning which is the first step in doing anything. By using this skill I was able to use my time more effectively and more wisely. I was able to use this skill during my personal project. The personal project was a project that was added additionally to our school work. This meant that if I was not organized I would fall behind in both my school work and in this project. Also, this project was a year-long project meaning that if I do not organize my schedule well enough I would not have finished the project in time or rushed it during the end of the project to get it done. Managing my time was important during the last few months of this project as that was when we started writing our final essay which was complex. By writing down each of the small steps that I had to do it helped me to not get lost in what I had to do. The action plan helped me to finish my project in time without having to rush things.

Tasks

Time required

Resources

Notes / Reflections

Adjustments

Date Complete

✔

Milestone: Research

Research about the cause of sleep deprivation

30 min

Do it in my research log

Aug. 31

✔

Research about the effects of sleep deprivation

30 min

Do it in my research log

Aug. 31

✔

Research about how to get good sleep

30 min

Do it in my research log

Sep.1

✔

Research about actual experiment done by experts

30 min

Do it in my research log

Sep.13

✔

Read a book about sleep deprivation and understand it

2 hours

Do it in my research log

Sep.13 but changed to Oct.3

✔

Milestone: Write annotated bibliography

Write annotated bibliography

20 min

Oct.5

✔

Hand in annotated bibliography

5

Upload it on managebac

Oct.6

✔

Milestone: Writing Success Criterion

Brainstorm success criteria

15 min

Finish before mentor meeting

Think about my final product and what it needs to be successful

Oct.7

✔

Write success criteria according to brainstorm

30 min

Finish before mentor meeting and get it checked

Think about my final product and what it needs to be successful

Oct.7

✔

Also, during the personal project, I had to organize the research that I did. This was important as if my notes were not organized and easy for me to understand later it would have taken me a long time to finish my final product. I first had to think about how I learn the best in and how I can use that specific method to make my notes understandable to me. After doing some research on the ways to take notes I realized that I understood better if I the notes were written in full sentences or in bullet points. That is why I have written my personal projects notes in a specific method.

Effects of sleep deprivation 1

Sleepiness causes accidents

It is proven that not enough amount of sleep can cause accidents and injuries. In a study workers who complained about lack of sleep had more amount of repeated work accidents.

Sleep loss can make you stupid

Lack of sleep can interfere with cognitive processes which can mess the ability to think.While you are sleeping various sleep cycles play a role in consolidating memories in mind. This means that if you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and did throughout the day.

Sleep deprivation can lead to serious health problems

Heart attack

Heart diseases

Heart failure

Irregular heartbeat

High blood pressure

Stroke

Diabetes

Lack of sleep kills sex drives

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2002 says that most men with sleep apnea have low testosterone levels. Nearly half of the men who lack sleep have abnormally low level of testosterone levels during the night.

Lack of sleep can lead to depression

In a 2007 study of 10,000 people, people with insomnia were 5 times more likely to develop depression compared to the ones without. In fact, insomnia is often one of the first symptoms of depression.

Lack of sleep can age your skin

When people don’t get enough sleep their body releases more stress hormone cortisol. With too much stress hormone the skin collagen can break down. Sleep loss can cause the body to release a little amount of human growth hormone than normal. This hormone helps little children grow and old people to help increase muscle mass, thicken skin and strengthen bones. According to expert Phil Gehrman the human growth hormone is released when the body is in deep sleep and it seems as if it is part of normal tissue repair.

Sleepiness makes you forgetful

In 2009 American and French researchers found out a brain event called “sharp wave ripples” which is responsible for consolidating memory. These ripples transfer learned from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term memories are stored.

Lack of sleep can make the you gain weight

Lack of sleep can lead to hunger. According to a 2004 study, people who sleep less than 6 hours a day were almost 30% more likely to become obese. There is a high risk of increase in type 2 diabetes.

Lack of sleep can lead to high risk of death

“Whitehall II study” British researchers looked into how sleep pattern affect the morality of more than 10000 British people for over two decades. The results published in 2007 said that people who sleep 7 to 5 hours or less a night almost double the risk of death from all causes. In particular Cardiovascular disease. This disease is according to NHS choices(http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cardiovascular-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx) a condition that is affecting the heart or the blood vessels. It usually happens due to buildup of fatty deposits inside the arteries.

Lack of sleep impairs judgment, especially about sleep

Lack of sleep can affect our judgment about things happening at that moment. This ability messes with our ability to make sound because we may not access the situation accurately and act upon wisely. Sleep deprived people seem to have a poor judgment when thinking about what lack of sleep is doing to them. Studies done overtime show that people who sleep less than 8 hours for a long period their body gets used to it. However, if you look at how those people do in mental alertness and performance test they don’t do well and their results keep going downhill.

The second ATL skill that I improved throughout the two years of my high school is collaboration skill. Collaboration is an important skill when working as a group as it is important to listen to everyone’s ideas and come up with a conclusion that everyone is satisfied with. I was able to improve my collaboration skill in design and P.E. In design I had to work in a group of three and come up with a clothing brand. This assessment was about tackling a problem in the world with fashion. We first had to agree on what type of clothing we wanted to create and how we wanted to create it. We all had different fashion problems we wanted to tackle. Therefore, it was somewhat complex at the start to come up with a theme for our brand. To come up with a theme for the clothing brand we brainstormed three of the different fashion problems separately about how the problem can be tackled and found the similar tacking method for all three of the problems. This then became our theme for our clothing brand. In P.E I had to work in a group of three to come up with dance moves for a minute and a half to a song called “That’s what I like”. This was one of the hardest group work that I had to do as all three people in the group had a very different dance style which were all unique. To overcome this problem we came up with dance moves for the same part and combined the parts together together to create something all three group members are satisfied with.

The last ATL skill that I improved is transfer skill. Transfer skill is important as it can help you use the skills that you already have in other contexts. I was able to use this skill during my science and I&S project. During the science project on finding which electricity the hotel should use, I was able to use the organization skills that I learned during the personal project. This science project was an in-class assessment where we had to write an essay. We were allowed to bring one A4 paper of notes. Like I have explained before, during the project I was able to improve my note taking skills as I researched about the different types of note-taking methods and found a specific method that fit me. Therefore, I was able to transfer the organization skill and take notes in a way I would understand(my science notes down below).

Total power output of useful energy of all the lightbulbs in all rooms and restaurants(kW)

Incandescent typeⅠ：60W, 800Lm, 200yen, 2000hrs

Incandescent typeⅡ：200W, 3200Lm, 1000yen, 2000hrs

LED typeⅠ：10W, 800Lm, 2000yen, 30000hrs

LED typeⅡ：40W, 3200Lm, 6000yen, 30000hrs

Total power output of useful energy of all the lightbulbs in all rooms and restaurants

Economical benefits- LED efficiency saves money over time, uses less electricity

Lifespan: LED requires less repairing and replacement

Environmental Benefit- Less electricity consumption leads to less pollution

Uses less electricity to produce the same light- less greenhouse gas emission

Contains no toxic elements.

Fluorescent strip contain mercury

Contaminate the environment(lands) when disposing

During the I&S project, we had to research about a specific addiction or mental issue and compare two different countries. For this project, I chose to research about alcohol addiction and compared Korea and UK. I was able to use the research skill that I learned through the personal project as I had to do in-depth research about the two different countries and why a lot of people have alcohol addiction issues. I had to search through various lenses, for instance, I had to research the culture of the two different countries(Just like the research below). In addition, I was also able to transfer the organization skill that I learned through the personal project. As explained before, I learned that I understood the notes that I took better if they were in full sentences or in bullet points. Therefore, I transferred the knowledge that I had and made my notes both in bullet points and in full sentences. The bullet points were the parts that were less important compared to the full sentences which were the main parts for this project.

What is alcohol addiction

Alcohol addiction or alcoholism is a chronic disease where the body and the mind becomes dependent on alcohol. Alcohol addicted people would be considered frequent drinkers and according to Rethink Drinking frequent drinking is defined as drinking 14 shots or more per week for men and 7 shots or more per week.

Symptoms

The symptoms of alcohol addiction is..

Drinking at inappropriate time such as at church, work or first thing in the morning

Wanting to be where alcohol is available

Hanging out with friends that are heavy drinkers

Depending on alcohol to live a daily life

Frequent use of alcohol

Korea

Korea is one of the world’s most drinking country. On average a Korean person drinks 14 shots of alcohol a week. This means 12.3 liters of alcohol consumption per capita every year. In Korea as you can see in graph 1 the death rates due to alcohol keeps increasing from the year 1994 and there are more male deaths than women. This is because there are more male who are alcohol addicts compared to women due to stress at work. The social economic level does not affect the amount of alcohol that a person drinks on average. This is due to the Korean culture.

Culture

A reason why Koreans drink a lot of alcohol regularly is due to their culture. In Korea alcohol is easy to get as people don’t check ID often and alcohol is very cheap. Also, Korea does not have a law restricting the places people can sell hard liquor. Therefore, any kind of liquor can be bought in places such as convenience stores and supermarkets for cheap prices all day long. The last reason is a bit similar to the UK culture but in Korea it is considered rude to say no to drinking without a reason and people will just assume that there is something wrong with you. Especially when a hierarchy invites you for a drink it is one of the biggest rewards that a Korean worker can receive as this is how the hierarchy is showing their respect towards you. However, at time to time this hierarchy thing can become stressful to some of the Koreans. Due to this being stressful Koreans get the habit of regular drinking which lead to alcohol addiction.

UK

Just like Korea, UK is one of the world’s most drinking country. On average a British person drinks about 14 shots a week. 11.6 liters of alcohol consumption per capita every year. Alcohol addiction is one of the fifth biggest cause factor of death for all ages and the biggest death factor among 15-49 year olds. In the year 2016, 38% men and 29% women regularly drink above the recommended safe limits of consumptions which makes them alcohol addicts. In the year 2015, there was 8757 alcohol related deaths which is an average of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 population. Just like Korea, the death rates due to alcohol keeps increasing since the year 1994. The social economic level does not affect the amount of alcohol that a person drinks on average.()

Cultural reasons

A reason why there is a lot of alcohol addicted people in UK is because of their culture. In UK it is considered weak for people to not drink alcohol especially for men. According to one of the agency marketing director he said “There’s certainly a pressure to drink and an immediate assumption that something’s ‘wrong’ with you if you don’t want to drink. Someone looked at me a few weeks ago when I was abstaining and said, Come on, you’re better than that,” For women it can get awkward and personal if the person doesn’t drink. If you don’t drink people assume that you are pregnant most of the time. A senior sales manager confessed that she found out that she was pregnant but didn’t want her team to find out as if she couldn’t drink she thought that she would be less valuable. With all of the pressure that people feel and the assumptions that they receive from not drinking people in UK have no choice but to drink alcohol to ease the social pressure.(DIGIDAY)